A good word for describing the persona would be that of a "flaneur." A flaneur was basically a 'street walker'; someone always detached and isolated from everyone else and used to observing life from the outside. Prufrock is quite attuned to modern life that goes outside him, but is paralysed within himself
Boggles my mind how you do this... I've been doing rhetorical analysis (starkly different from poetry analysis, yes) for four years and JUST recently obtained a decent grasp on it. How you analyze so fluently and effortlessly is awe-inspiring and encouraging, and done so thoroughly as well! Awesome video.
No man reading the poem would think the urban landscape was anything other than a backdrop. This is about him feeling excessively self conscious/inferior (despite his best efforts) and hence nervous with women. When/if to take the plunge and propose, only to be told "that's not what I meant at all". What on earth else are the overwhelming questions? He describes the many rituals he has to go through to even get to that point.
Very much agree with you and I would also add indecisive. I have “carried” this poem with me from my late teenage years into my now early 70s. Memorized it. Recited it. Enjoyed the mystery and absolute word smithing beauty of it. There are other personal hooks in Prufrock that are difficult, for me, to write about. I will continue to enjoy this poem “… as I walk along the beach.”
Hi, great video, I especially liked your point about Eliot borrowing a "persona" from the symbolist movement. I'm curious as to which other symbolist poets portrayed similar archetypes?
Your analysis of poetic conventions is dead on. However, I think you miss the greater arc of the poem. I assert that it’s a man in, for lack of a better term, mid-life crisis. Also, why do you assume that the “you and I,” are the speaker and the reader? There’s nothing to suggest that.
Here's my own rough translation, how I see it anyhow: "Should I then presume? And how should I begin? Shall I say: 'I have gone at dusk through narrow streets and watched the smoke that rises from the pipes of lonely men in shirt sleeves leaning out of windows'?" "Can I presume that she likes me? How would I even ask her out if she did? Should I tell her: 'I've walked around and seen all these lonely, single men and I don't want to be one of them'?" I think the image of the lonely men in shirt sleeves leaning out of windows is being used as a sarcastic suggestion of how he might open a conversation with a potential love interest. It illustrates his feelings of detachment and loneliness and his view of the modern world being detached and lonely - not great pick up line material. Which is why, I think, he follows it up with the self-deprecating remark "I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Like saying, "I I'm detached and lonely and I can't even put that aside to talk to women in order to not be detached and lonely - I may as well just be some creature at the bottom of the ocean."
A good word for describing the persona would be that of a "flaneur." A flaneur was basically a 'street walker'; someone always detached and isolated from everyone else and used to observing life from the outside. Prufrock is quite attuned to modern life that goes outside him, but is paralysed within himself
Adding that to my essay!!!
All this time I've found this poem incomprehensible. Now I get it.... he was just an incel before social media. Simple, really.
😆
Boggles my mind how you do this... I've been doing rhetorical analysis (starkly different from poetry analysis, yes) for four years and JUST recently obtained a decent grasp on it. How you analyze so fluently and effortlessly is awe-inspiring and encouraging, and done so thoroughly as well! Awesome video.
No man reading the poem would think the urban landscape was anything other than a backdrop. This is about him feeling excessively self conscious/inferior (despite his best efforts) and hence nervous with women. When/if to take the plunge and propose, only to be told "that's not what I meant at all". What on earth else are the overwhelming questions? He describes the many rituals he has to go through to even get to that point.
I always think of this poem as expressing the pain and isolation of being an extremely self-conscious person.
I love how you framed this; well said!
Very much agree with you and I would also add indecisive.
I have “carried” this poem with me from my late teenage years into my now early 70s.
Memorized it. Recited it. Enjoyed the mystery and absolute word smithing beauty of it.
There are other personal hooks in Prufrock that are difficult, for me, to write about.
I will continue to enjoy this poem “… as I walk along the beach.”
it reminds me of "The Underground Man" by Dostoyevsky
Thank you so much for this video, the speaker summarized every important detail by giving many examples. İt was very helpful for me. Thanks again!
Very kind words; thank you!
Simple explanation, thank you from Iraq ✨
Thank you so much this is very insightful!
Hi, great video, I especially liked your point about Eliot borrowing a "persona" from the symbolist movement. I'm curious as to which other symbolist poets portrayed similar archetypes?
From Pakistan 🇵🇰Very well Done .Thank you for the video
really helpful, thanks
THANK YOU!
Wish I had these materials when I was studying.
thank you so much
Well explained 👍
Really excellent
He's not "wandering" thru the flipping streets. He knows where he's going.
Is this poem about death moral message I mean or what is the moral message exactly? please
great ma’am
Thank you!
she so pretty
Your analysis of poetic conventions is dead on. However, I think you miss the greater arc of the poem. I assert that it’s a man in, for lack of a better term, mid-life crisis. Also, why do you assume that the “you and I,” are the speaker and the reader? There’s nothing to suggest that.
Plz can you help me to talk about disappointment 🥺
Nice
Thank you
It very good summary ,themes styles. If we can have the same thing in the waste land.
It will be very good.
Honestly… that was fierce *sob*
"Men with shirt-sleeves"
Who is 'men' here
Here's my own rough translation, how I see it anyhow:
"Should I then presume? And how should I begin? Shall I say: 'I have gone at dusk through narrow streets and watched the smoke that rises from the pipes of lonely men in shirt sleeves leaning out of windows'?"
"Can I presume that she likes me? How would I even ask her out if she did? Should I tell her: 'I've walked around and seen all these lonely, single men and I don't want to be one of them'?"
I think the image of the lonely men in shirt sleeves leaning out of windows is being used as a sarcastic suggestion of how he might open a conversation with a potential love interest. It illustrates his feelings of detachment and loneliness and his view of the modern world being detached and lonely - not great pick up line material. Which is why, I think, he follows it up with the self-deprecating remark "I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Like saying, "I I'm detached and lonely and I can't even put that aside to talk to women in order to not be detached and lonely - I may as well just be some creature at the bottom of the ocean."
Sounds like Eliot was the Red Pill OG!